Growing up with ardent Catholicism as an integral part of my identity meant repressing my bisexuality any way that I could. How does it feel to admit that you are the contradiction of what you were taught to believe? It’s a question Becca Mancari asks on “First Time,” her coming out story. Mancari comes from a fundamentalist Christian household, her father a pastor. It’s a heavy hit from the get-go, Mancari singing, “I remember the first time my dad didn’t hug me back.” Unraveling the bandages from her emotional wounds to write the track wasn’t easy, but she notes, “as soon as the first line of the song came out of me, I knew there was no going back.” The wistful song is one that I wish I’d had at fifteen when I struggled to lend myself an ounce of kindness, unable to live my truth. “Hey, did you find your way out?” Mancari asks over a homespun country folk-style plucking that harkens back to her Nashville roots. For me, the song reads like a love letter to my younger self from someone who found happiness on the other side.
On the track, Mancari says, “My hope is that when you hear this song you feel less alone, and that you do indeed find your way out.” “First Time” is the second single from The Greatest Part, her sophomore record coming June 26th via Captured Tracks. We’re hopeful Mancari will be able to tour with her Bermuda Triangle bandmate Brittany Howard this fall.
The Fat Angel Sings 